THONISSEN, JEAN-JOSEPH. — Belgian jurist and politician, b. 10 Jan. 1816 in Hasselt, d. 17 Aug. 1891 in Louvain.
Having graduated in law from the University of Liège in 1838, he became, after a period of further study in Paris, deputy public prosecutor at the Hasselt court in 1845.
His direct experience of the defects of the Penal Code of 1810, subsequently modified by various special laws, prompted him to produce a work that would provide an organic overview of the legislation then in force. The publication of the first volume of this Complément au Code pénal in 1847, besides earning him much praise, secured him the chair of criminal law at the University of Louvain. But as early as 1844 he had published La Constitution belge annotée (two further editions in 1876 and 1879), which remains a valuable aid for scholars. The crisis of 1848 led him to concern himself with socialism in two writings: Le socialisme et ses promesses (1850) and Le socialisme depuis l'antiquité jusqu'à la Constitution française du 14 janvier (1852). Historical reconstructions, on the other hand, are the volumes La Belgique sous le règne de Léopold I (4 vols., 1855–58) and the lives of Count Felice de Mérode (1862) and Ferdinando de Meeus (1863). In 1862, in a short book, he declared himself opposed to the death penalty (La prétendue nécessité de la peine de mort), provoking extensive controversy. A convinced Catholic, in 1863 he agreed to stand as a candidate in the elections for the Chamber, and, having been elected, had his mandate reconfirmed until his death. In the parliamentary chamber, thanks to his learning and independence of judgment, he soon won not only the respect of his party colleagues but also that of the liberals. After criticizing and opposing in 1865–66 the law on foundations and scholarships, which was hostile to Catholics, in 1868 he parted ways with his party colleagues over the question of national defense. Consequently regarded as too militaristic, he did not enter the Catholic cabinet that remained in power from 1871 to 1878; indeed, he found himself in conflict with the ministry because of the demand he put forward in parliament to introduce compulsory military service or a volunteer system in place of the system based on drawing lots. In the Catholic cabinet presided over by Beernaert, T. was Minister of the Interior and Public Education from October 1884 to October 1887. Stricken by pulmonary congestion and paralysis in 1888, he spent his final years in an almost complete state of unconsciousness.
(phot. Services Commerciales Monuments Historiques)